India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant continues to be the talk of the town and for all the wrong reasons only because of yet another failure that ended his horror tour of New Zealand.
Pant was dismissed for 10 runs in the 3rd ODI on Wednesday at Hagley Oval. He played all the matches on this tour and batted 4 times – managing scores of 6 and 11 in the T20Is and 15 and 10 in ODIs. This, he followed it up from scores of 3 and 6 in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
Rishabh Pant came into bat in the 14th over of India’s innings at number 4, after both the openers, Shubman Gill and Shikhar Dhawan, were dismissed.
On just the second ball he faced, Rishabh Pant whacked fast bowler Lockie Ferguson for a boundary after charging him down and flicking over mid-wicket. He also hit a short-arm jab to a back-of-a-length delivery that was outside the off-stump from Adam Milne and it raced away for a boundary.
He was looking good until a moment of lapse in concentration and not properly executing his shot did him for the innings. Daryl Mitchell, the extra seam-bowling option Kane Williamson deployed, banged it in short and Pant went for the pull shot. However, he couldn’t get on top of the bounce and mistimed it to deep square leg where Glenn Phillips ran in and dove forward to take a good catch and end Pant’s stay in the middle.
The 25-year-old walked back dejectedly after yet another failure, giving another chance to his critics, largely a fan-base of Sanju Samson, who was benched for this game and will end the tour with only 1 innings to his name.
Rishabh Pant was mercilessly trolled by netizens on Twitter for his latest cheap score in the 3rd ODI vs New Zealand:
Bcci favouritism to Risabh pant first destroyed dinesh Karthik hopes and dream , now same thing is happening to sanju samson all over again , will never understand bcci obsession for pant
— Praruj Singh (@prarujsingh7) November 30, 2022
BCCI is making mockery of Indian team worldwide. Worst team selection & worst management. Our Captain and Coach needs rest every month ?? I have never seen Sachin, Dravid or Ganguly skipping the series & take rest. Mark my words in World Cup, we will be out in Semi’s. #BCCI
— Keval Shah 🇮🇳 (@CAKevalShah1) November 30, 2022
Sanju samson droped again and rishabh pant again fail this ridiculous what msg want to give management https://t.co/fmilAIUgIP
— R chandra (@RCSaxena7) November 30, 2022
#RishabhPant #KLRahul @RishabhPant17 @klrahul
Every time when @BCCI select then for series pic.twitter.com/zEUXbhPlWz
— Baaca-Hardiee (@hardiee) November 30, 2022
@Bcci @shubhankrmishra
A wonderfull inning by #RishabhPant
He missed his Century by just 90 Runs.#RishabhPant #INDvsNZ #JusticeForSanjuSamson @RishabhPant17 @aajtak pic.twitter.com/Pdh0eDTVwn— Gulshan Kumar Kohliii (@Gulshan_450390) November 30, 2022
Why this partiality BCCI between Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant ?? pic.twitter.com/bwkq0grApk
— UmderTamker (@jhampakjhum) November 30, 2022
BCCI selector to Rishabh Pant: pic.twitter.com/THVP1gDNfJ
— Raghav Masoom (@comedibanda) November 30, 2022
Rishabh Pant going back to pavilion be like :-#INDvsNZ #RishabhPant pic.twitter.com/1cIQu82iwU
— Innocent Child (@bholaladkaa) November 30, 2022
Another day and yet another greatest innings of BCCI’s mama ke ladke Rishabh Pant.🤣🤣
— Kangkan Sarma🇮🇳(কংকন শৰ্মা) (@imKangkanSarma) November 30, 2022
Rishabh Pant is sure walking on thin ice now. Hasn’t been able to put value on his wicket #IndvsNZ
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) November 30, 2022
Rishabh Pant is the biggest fluke ever hppnd in the history of Indian Cricket
— Arun Lol (@dhaikilokatweet) November 30, 2022
Rishabh Pant’s dismissals continue to test your anger.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) November 30, 2022
This is for all the haterz who think that Rishabh Pant can’t score in T20Is.#crickettwitter pic.twitter.com/vaT90kIHOk
— Akash Kumar Jha (@Akashkumarjha14) November 24, 2022
India, meanwhile, were bowled out for 219 in the 3rd ODI which they have to win to level the series. Daryl Mitchell and Adam Milne shared 3 wickets each while Washington Sundar (51) and Shreyas Iyer (49) were India’s top scorers.
